It has long been known that the sound a golf putter makes when it strikes the golfball is important to enhance the use of the putter. This sound-producing characteristic may be desirable, both for aesthetic reasons to make using the golf putter more enjoyable, or for functional reasons to help determine whether the proper area of the club head strikes the golfball. Using touch and sound, a golfer can develop a reproducible and therefore more accurate putting stroke.
Prior art references which disclose sounding golf putter heads are, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,056 issued to Nakamatsu on Oct. 31, 1978. This references discloses a golf putter head having two connected and opposed members which are spaced apart. One of the members is adapted to strike a golfball such that the member vibrates to produce a sound by which a golfer can judge the area of the club head which strikes the golfball. The sounding member is in the shape of a tine with a vibrating free end, the tine being the ball-striking surface. Another attempt at creating a sound-producing golf putter is U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,144 issued to Maniatis on Nov. 3, 1992. This reference discloses a golf putter having tuning fork effects. The putter head is vertically sliced from the sole all the way to into the neck to form first and second opposing portions which produce tuning fork effects, namely, shaft vibrations and a corresponding tone. Yet another attempt at creating a sound-producing putter is U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,219 issued to Pehocki et al on Sep. 13, 1994. In this reference, a symmetrical golf putter head is formed of a center elongated bar member and two ball striking plate members affixed at both ends in spaced position on opposite sides of the center member. The opposing plates flex when the golfball is struck, and the flexure compensates for deflection and provides a more accurate roll in the selected direction.
In the above-described attempts at creating a sound-producing golf putter, either the tonal quality of the produced sound is inferior or the tone-producing members are so thin that they flex, thus adversely affecting the direction of the golfball. There is therefore a need in the art for a sound-producing golf putter which produces aesthetically pleasing high quality tones, yet which provides accurate putting.